One of the hot Christmas items this year was Moon Sand. But while it's certainly not a bank-breaker, it is costly for what is basically wet sand. So, I did a little digging around (pun intended) and discovered a way to make your very own moon sand. Here's the best part...the homemade stuff will set you back less than 60 cents per pound! (See also: 5 Frugal Birthday Party Games)

As you may know, there are several Moon Sand kits out there, and they come with all sorts of the usual play-dough style gadgets and molds. But if you just want a bucket of the stuff, the best deal I have found so far is at Amazon, where a 7 1/2 lb tub will cost you $18.74, down from $29.99 (at the time this article was published).

Now, if you do the math you'll figure out that Moon Sand is roughly $2.50 per pound on sale, down from $4/lb. Not bad, but not great. With the following recipe you can create around 50lbs of homemade moon sand for $30. That equates to 60 cents per pound, over 4 times cheaper than the sale bucket! So, grab your rubber gloves and lets get to work.

Recipe for Homemade Moon Sand (1 batch)

6 cups of play sand (I got a 50 lb bag from Lowe's; it was $4.99 plus tax.)

3 cups of cornstarch (Most dollar stores carry it for $1 per box...you'll need around 24 boxes for the whole 50 lbs!)

1 1/2 cups of cold water

Mix the water and cornstarch together thoroughly, this will take a few minutes to get it nice and smooth.

Gradually mix in the sand, one cup at a time. You'll need to really work it in with your fingers.

Play with it!

When you're all done, pop it in an airtight container.

When you next play with it, you'll need to revive it with 2-3 tablespoons of water. Just sprinkle it over and work it in.

That's all there is to it. Very cheap, very easy and the kids will get to play with heaps of the stuff. Play sand also comes in different colors, so buy different colored bags to mix things up a little. Have fun!

Disclaimer: The links and mentions on this site may be affiliate links. But they do not affect the actual opinions and recommendations of the authors.

Wise Bread is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

Barb C #1

I bet you could color this with a bit of food color too. I would add paste colors because it will add less moisture, or sub it for some of the water if you use those thin liquid colors available at the grocery store. Warning, it could color hands.

I have not felt "Moon Sand" but I was imaginging it was a bit more like clay with sand mixed in. One of the reason's I imagined clay was that I thought I heard that it didn't dry out.

Thanks for the tip! I might do this with my daughter during this break.

You can use packets of Kool-Aid (without the sugar) and it makes it smell good as well as coloring it!

S.

TwinLeos #3

I WANT TO MAKE MY OELN MOONSAND RIGHT NOW.

Brian H #4

How did the food coloring work? I was thinking about buying the colored street chalk and some sandpaper, and replacing 1:1 the colored street chalk dust in place of the same amount of white sand. To me it makes since because this is how colored sand is made at the carnivals.

I have been trying to get moon sand to sell on my online sand carving tools shop for years... guess we are too small for then to mess with. Now I can throw up a link to this page and tell my customers that they don't need to buy no stinkin' moon sand -- they can just make it for themselves!
Merci mucho.

I remember that when my mother-in-law used to make her own Play-Doh, she used Kool-Aid for coloring and giving the finished product a pleasant smell. Might work for moon sand too -- we'll have to try it out.

It doesn't dry out because it is basically sand where each individual grain is coated with a slightly sticky wax. So you really aren't making the exact same thing here, just an alternative. The wax coating is what makes real moon sand so easy to unmold.

This sounds great. How long do you think this stuff will last? Would some kind of preservative help? If I was using it for a pre-school playgroup I could see it getting a bit smelly and unhygienic. Perhaps a few drops of Milton fluid or something like sodium bicarbonate would keep the starch fresh.

Okay, I'm so out of it, do you all let your kids play with sand in the house? Yikes. Playdoh is bad enough. My 3-year-old grandnephew can make an incredible mess with whatever he has in his hands in less than 5 minutes. I love the textures and colors of that stuff, though, ha-ha. At least I can keep him occupied in one place that way for maybe a half hour or so. I bought the kid and his brother a sandbox last summer, that's been fun. Will have to copy these instructions for the niece (which she will probably laugh at and pitch, tee-hee).

We've made all kinds of messy substances in the house (this recipe without the sand is fun also, we call it slime, it's a "non-newtonian" fluid and it's got some really fun properties). When my youngest was much younger her favorite thing to do was take off her clothes and rub the stuff on her body. Very messy indeed. The rule became that they could only make/play with this stuff in the bathtub (or outside in nice weather), as that is where they'd end up anyway! Clean up is MUCH easier this way!

Jenn H. #21

Can you share your recipe for non newtonian fluid?

Guest #22

Cindy, Moon Sand is actually better in our house than Playdoh. If you get Playdoh on your shoes, you track it everywhere and it gets stuck in the carpet, the dog, the sofa, etc. If you get Moon Sand on your shoes, it falls off onto the floor, carpet, etc., but can then be swept, vacuumed, or dusted up. MUCH better than a big colored glob of goo caught in the carpet fibers. It's kind of like living on the beach... :-)

Guest Anna #23

I kept those under-the-bed large storage container full of sand under the bed & would pull it out for the grandkids to play with on a rainy day. Of course, throwing down old sheets on the floor first helped immensely. Each kid had their own sandbox & were kept busy for hours. Cleanup was a breeze - just pick up the sheets by the corners & dump any grains right back into the containers. (They had lids too. I always throw an old sheet down under the play table for play dough & moon sand, too. That really saves the mess. The kids have made their own play dough for years. Now I plan to try making the moon sand but was wondering how long it would stay good. The commercial one I have has lasted several years.

Guest #24

My daughter's teacher made this in her pre-school class. She used mineral oil or baby oil instead of water. It stayed wet, even in a bin sitting outside in the California sun. When I made it at home I added a couple drops of ti tree oil to kill some germs.

if you want to color this, you have to do it before you add the oil, otherwise it won't absorb.

water is FREE -
that means that reviving it doesn't cost a penny and only takes 2 seconds - still WAY cheaper than the real deal.

Matt #27

I've made my son a 4x3 sand table for the house. I was looking for a cheap way to fill it with moon sand. We have been using it for construction and to make Hotwheel size monster truck tracks, atv race tracks, etc...But to make 50lbs and keeping it moist or cleaning up each time isn't practical...I just need to find a place to get it in a 5 Gal bucket or a 25lb bag. If anyone knows let me know.

We bought some grown-up moonsand a couple years ago for placing our Chist candle in at church. The youth love it so much - we stand around moulding it and chatting.
I'll be making up the full 25kg bag for our next young people's convention.
Many thanks!

...not really like Moon Sand. I made this today with my daughter. It is a lot gloppier and doesn't hold it's shape like the real stuff. But, it is cheap, fun and easy to clean up- it glops together easily and when it dries it is just cornstarch and sand, so it is easy to sweep or vacuum.

I made this yesterday with my nephew and it was really watery. I am thinking it might have been because the sand was damp to start with (we bought it was homedepo). when ever I buy play sand it is always damp when I take it out of the bag. we just added more sand and more corn starch untill it got to the right consistancy and now he is having a ball with it. He played with it for hours yesterday and has been playing with now for over 2 hours he has his trucks in it and dosnt want to stop. I am going to try and spray it with some cooking spray or put some vegtable oil in it when it needs to be moisened I remember being younger and makeing the sand that floats and thats how we made it we maybe it will work I will let you guys know how it turns out after I do it. Thanks for alot of fun!

I made this yesterday with my two grandsons, 4 & 2, out in the backyard in a play table sand box. It was lots of fun. They played for more than 2 hours digging, scooping, molding, driving cars around the sand.

It's does not mold and hold it's shape, as well as, the real Moon Sand but it is a nice consistency. It's clean and easy to wash off. I'm going to try adding the mineral oil.

Great idea, I haven't tried it yet. We got some moon sand from grandma and I was trying to figure out what it is exactly- I don't think there's any actual sand in "moon sand". It's messy but relatively easy to clean up. The kids were tracking it every where, so it's band for outside use only now.
I think this is worth a try because although moon sand last "forever" it gets nasty, bits of all kinds of lint and hair and dirt extra get in it causing it to look, well yucky. You need to throw it out and get more after playing with it for a little while, so it would get pricey. Also I was thinking of my son's preschool and filling a whole preschool sized water table with moon sand would be very expensive and unpractical.

I would suggest you do the same thing as a poor man's humidor. Go to a cigar store, get a 75 cent humidor insert, but a couple drops of water on it when you stick it the container and see if that keeps it wet.

I tried this and it works quite well - the sand has a nice consistency, and can be adjusted by adding a little more or less water. But I did come up with a much better way of preparing it.

1. Get a gallon ziplock freezer bag, the zipper kind works best.
2. Mix the box 16 oz box of corn starch and 6 cups of sand together in the ziplock bag, knead until you have an even consistency.
3. Add the water to the bag, then knead it until ready.

This way you don't even have to get your hands dirty, and mixing the dry ingredients first gives you a completely even consistency without the clumps. If you want to do more than one batch and not use a ton of ziplock bags, you should dump the dry ingredients into another container before adding the water. Then you can reuse the bag for the dry ingredients.

My 5 year old daughter was given last week the bought moon sand for her birthday (the animalia one) and she was very frustrated in that what ever she made just fell apart within seconds. She used the molding tools and I helped her, but as we tried to stand the molded sand up just as they show in the picture on the packet it fell apart.
The packet says not to add water. But after reading all the above suggestions I am inclined to add 1 tablespoon at a time till it sticks more proberly. Any suggestions anyone.

I am just very hesitant addding water as the packet says not to. Karen

I deliberatly put a small clump of the moon sand into water, just to see how destructible it was, (I have 5 kids, and I'm not spending money on something that doesn't hold up), whenI took out the moon sand the water just ran off of it, and it squished together more. If you are going to add water, do it by the drop, not the tablespoon.
After about 17 kids played with it for 4 days in a row it did dry out a little, I don't think adding a little water would hurt anything.

Guest #47

Post by "Karen" in June about adding water to bought moon sand - it works perfectly fine. When my daughter has left the ld off for a long time, we have had to add water. It takes quite a while to work it in, but it worked fine. She also added glitter, again, fine.

Guest #48

This is from the Moon Sand faq site:

Can Moon Sand get wet?
Moon Sand repels water, and can actually float! This enables the artist to incorporate water into their sculpture without any damage. Use water in any creative way you want like creating a moat around your castle creations.

I love the Oobleck experiment. I did it with my 4 year old son this weekend. He learned about non-newtonian fluids, polymers, and molecule chains. Cool stuff! We found a fun site with neat science experiments like this. I will put the link below for anyone interested.

By combining micro styrofoam pellets and an oobleck-type substance (use the borax based one)

Just get any styrofoam packaging material, put it in a ziploc bag, and knead it until it all breaks apart. I suggest mixing everything inside the bag -- don't attempt to get the styrofoam beads out! They go EVERYWHERE

just want to add that I have never tried the homemade stuff but my 3 year old loves moonsand (will try this very soon). I do let her play with it in the house. I threw away the silly moon sand playmat and bought one of those rubbermade bins made to slide under the bed. It's a great little sand box. I only let her play with it on the kitchen floor. So when she's done, pop the lid back on and a quick sweep and it's all cleaned up.

We tried this tonite--20 lbs of pink and 20 lbs of blue play sand for $1.00 a bag, and 3 boxes of cornstarch for 82 cents a piece. We ended up adding more sand than called for and its like wet beach sand. For under $5.00, it will work for a fun outsde activity.

I *was* looking to buy some moon sand for a sensory experience at a special education festival, now I'm thinking of making it. The question that got me to this site remains, though. I've got the use of a classroom sand table. How much sand or moon sand do I need for that? Someone said the stuff is so light you don't need a ton. I'm clueless!

The comment above about using Kool Aid was great. Dyes and food colors just add a lot of stain to kids hands and furniture. The Kool Aid did not.
The texture of moon sand for those who don't know yet is a lot like that moist sand just below the surface at the beach.
This Home made one is not exact...but actually better.
And with kids....the act of making it together ....well it makes it all the more wonderful
Thank you so much for posting this....YOU ARE KEEPIng families actively together.
BOOK MARK this man all......simple, easy to understand, and always the best among the rest
xoxoxoxo

I haven't read every post in detail, but I haven't noticed any about what happens a while later...
We made moon sand and decided to put it in the sand/water table sandbox. That was a HUGE mistake. It rotted, smelled like barf, attracted all sorts of things you DON'T want in your sandbox, grew a horrible mould, and required a large amount of work to clean up. First, we dumped the rotten sand into a pit in the backyard (we had been landscaping) and buried it. Then we had to powerwash the sandbox, then bleach & anti-bacterial soap to kill the stink, which had permeated into the plastic.

One hour of fun for hours of labour to clean up... and the "real" moon sand still has no smell months later. Not that I will ever buy that again, either, thanks to the mess.

However, NOT funny to all of you that this has happened to!! UGGGGGHHH!!! Sometimes you just get what you pay for!

Katie #70

I had the same thing happen to me. I bought Play Sand as the recipe said at Home Depot & mixed up a big batch but had a sloppy pile of sand so I added more & more sand & cornstarch. Once I finally thought I had it figured out I soon found after a day or so that it had a horrible smell like sour milk. I don't know why it did this??? ANYONE what to help give me ideas?? Now I am wondering if I can still cover up the smell & salvage this huge batch that my son was looking forward to.

Sydney #71

i'm 12 years old and I babysit a lot of 4-7 year olds. I was wondering if making this would be a good idea of a way to entertain them???? Would it get to crazy and messy?? If I do it outside will it dry out faster? Does it stick to clothes?? and does it stay together easily? Please respond!!!! I would like to know by Monday, November 30 please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

I own a small business (very small, it’s just me) and it basically involves doing some writing for advertising, marketing, the web and of course, blogging. None of this will ever replace my full-time career, but it does eat up various costs that my accountant has told me I can deduct from my taxes. And when I looked into it further, I found not just a handful of possible deductions, but a veritable smorgasbord.

I want to save you all some grief because my first mixture was a disaster. First of all, when you buy play sand it is damp, so you cannot use the amount of water in this recipe. Second, it asks you to first mix cold water with starch - this is a mistake. It is so hard to mix - almost like mixing taffy that is almost hardened. Plus, you have already committed to the amount of water you're putting in, so to fix it you would have to add more sand and cornstarch to fix it. I did this and ended up with moon goop that would not hold its shape at all. I also tried the Kool Aid idea. Not only did it not color the sand (it would have taken tons of packets to get a good color since sand is brown), it made it smell disgusting (I used grape). This mixture was pretty solid by the next day and was very difficult for me to dig out of the tupperware container and throw away.

It does get better....My next run went very well and this is what I did: I mixed the sand and cornstarch first. Then, I prepared some fabric dye (I used one of those Rit dry packets with one cup of hot tap water). I dribbled it into my mixture and then mixed it with my hands till the dye was mixed in. Then I added some more. I ended up being able to add the whole cup of water, but if you're in doubt, prepare the dye mixture stronger (like one packet with 3/4 or 1/2 cup hot water). You can always add more water if necessary without the dye. I checked on my moonsand the next day and it was fine - I just needed to spritz it with a spray bottle and we were ready to go. I also added 1 TBSP + 1 TSP cream of tartar for preservation to the recipe listed here.

I made a 2 station sand and water table with pvc pipe, plumbing fittings and plastic storage boxes. I don’t have a tutorial but I made a simple frame for each of the boxes to sit in and then added legs to raise it up to about 3 year old height. Can’t wait to spray paint it and see my kiddos playing with it. I love that my kids can say “my mommy made that”!

Here's a tip: add the cornstarch gradually to the water too. I did that the first time and it worked great. The second time I added the water to the cornstarch, not gradually, and got ooblick (which is another fun thing for kids but not my intention) it still worked but made it so much harder to stir. Thanks for the how to, my son got some great sand toys but when we went to the beach it was so windy we couldn't play, it was that windy. Well if you bring the kid to the beach....bring the beach to the kid. :)

Here's a tip: add the cornstarch gradually to the water too. I did that the first time and it worked great. The second time I added the water to the cornstarch, not gradually, and got ooblick (which is another fun thing for kids but not my intention) it still worked but made it so much harder to stir. Thanks for the how to, my son got some great sand toys but when we went to the beach it was so windy we couldn't play, it was that windy. Well if you bring the kid to the beach....bring the beach to the kid. :)

Moon snad is Great! I read about someone not liking the mess. Go out and buy the biggest storage tub (but only about 6 inches high), you can find at somewhere like Walmart or Fleet Farm. Fill with sand, add cars and turn kids loose! Indoor sand box, it works great, and being in MN you can't play in sand outside right now. We are actually getting a second one for them at christmas and let the two of them have their own and build a bridge to connect the two.

What if you added oil instead of water? I came across a recipe for "cloud dough" (can't remember where) that was just oil and flour and it said it felt kind of like moon dough. It would be less likely to dry out than when it is made with water, but I'm not sure it would have the same properties...

Thank you! I am a kindergarten teacher and always looking for affordable ways to have these fun, creative products in my classroom. I work with a lot of kids that have sensory needs and if I buy the "real" things all the time, I'll go broke! I am so thankful to people like you who have the time and talents to figure these concoctions out and share them with the rest of us. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Here is a easyer way
Matirals: sugur, mix bowl, spoon, and food coloring
first take the suger pour in bowl (dont matter how much suger)
second put the any type of food colors you want in the bowl
third kneed the sand art and play with it till it gets all soft
fourth take spoon and scoop on to a table or mat
and let your kids have fun with it (DOESNT STICK TO MAT OR TABLE)